What Elections Would Look Like WITHOUT Electoral College

Seth Connell reports that as the whining over the results of the Presidential election continues, one Democratic Senator is taking it to a whole new level and is proposing a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the Electoral College.

Since Hillary Clinton narrowly won the popular vote, the Left is bringing up old arguments that the Electoral College is undemocratic and only a national popular vote is suitable for Presidential elections.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation on Tuesday to get rid of the Electoral College, after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election despite leading in the popular vote.

“In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote,” Boxer said in a statement. “In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, ‘The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy. I couldn’t agree more. One person, one vote!”

She added that Clinton, whom she supported, is “on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama.”

“The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately,” she said.

The glaring problem here is not that the system is rigged to help racist candidates oppress minorities (yes, some outlets claim that). The problem is that Barbara Boxer, and many on the Left, fundamentally misunderstand the importance of the Electoral College.

This system is in place to thwart the rise of demagogues, secure separation of powers, and enable smaller states to have a say in the electoral process. And, for the most part, it has worked fairly well.

First, the issue with a national popular vote is that demagogues, those who ride waves of passion that override better judgment, often can rise up and take sweeping powers with a popular mandate. However, that is how liberty dies (and often with a thunderous applause, I might add).

The Electoral College exists to protect people from themselves, and to prevent demagogues from playing off the fickle passions of the people. Socialists and Fascists are experts in demagoguery, and will use any and all means available to them to exploit tragedy to advance a totalitarian political agenda.

The Electoral College acts as a barrier by turning what would be one national election into 51 separate elections. It is much harder to win that kind of election as a demagogue than it is to win just one election nationally.

Second, the Electoral College acts as a separation of power. If the Presidential election were merely done by national popular vote, the states would have effectively no say in the electoral process. The system as designed enables state participation in the process of electing a national official.

The states are a critical part of the federal system. In electing the Executive, they must not be left out of the process (and we already killed their representation in the Senate, so now it is even more important to keep the Electoral College in place).

Third, it ensures that smaller states are not drowned out by larger ones. If the Presidential election were done by national popular vote, smaller states that occupy most of the middle United States would be neglected, totally forgotten in the process.

The Electoral College ensures that the smaller states have a say in the election. Hence, it is democratic to have this electoral system in place.

The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!

Another way to look at the Electoral College is to consider it like the World Series. Sure, throughout the entirety of the series one team may score more runs than the other team, but it is the result of each game that determines the winner of the series.

Just because one team outscored the other by 100 runs does not mean that the team with the most runs wins. It is the team that wins the most games. The same principle applies to the Electoral College.

As one last addendum, Business Insider put together a map of population density to show why the Electoral College is a good thing:

Now, if the Electoral College did not exist, what would happen to the grey counties? They would be forgotten, they would not matter. Only the most heavily populated areas would be courted for votes.

The Electoral College, contrary to the inklings of the Left, IS a democratic method of election, and it must be kept that way.